The judges didnโt hesitate: the Philippines took a hit on the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)โdown six spots to 120th out of 182โand the timing is brutal. The downgrade lands in the same season the countryโs flood-control controversy exploded into a full-blown credibility crisis, turning what used to be whispered suspicions into a headline-grade narrative: public-sector integrity is taking body shots, and the world is noticing.
On the scorecard, the Philippines posted 32/100โa one-point drop from 2024 and the countryโs lowest score since Transparency Internationalโs current scoring system began in 2012. In Southeast Asia, that places the country near the basement: the report notes the Philippinesโ score was only higher than Cambodia and Myanmar among its regional neighbors. CPI isnโt a courtroom verdictโitโs a perception indexโbut perceptions move markets, voter mood, and institutional trust all the same.
Malacaรฑangโs framing? The Palace essentially says the dip was predictable because the administration โexposedโ wrongdoing. Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro described the lower score as a side effect of โcleaning up the dirt,โ arguing that spotlighting anomalies can make corruption look worse before it looks betterโand when pressed on which past administration she meant, she said: all of them. She also insisted the President hasnโt cooled off on accountability for those linked to the flood-control mess, even as Malacaรฑang signals a pivot back to economic priorities after the impeachment complaints against Marcos were junked in the House.
Meanwhile, DPWH is trying to throw a counterpunch on the systems front: it launched โIntegrity Chain,โ a blockchain-based transparency project meant to make records traceable, auditable, and accessible, with validators tied to the Blockchain Council of the Philippines. DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon pitched it as the lesson written in policy: yes, go after offenders and recover moneyโbut more importantly, build guardrails so the same scheme canโt run back the exact same play. The CPI hit stands as the warning bell: the cleanup canโt just be performativeโit has to be measurable.